Larchmere String Quartet Master Class features USM student musicians

The USM School of Music will present a master class with Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra's Larchmere String Quartet, featuring two student chamber music ensembles.

Tickets are $6 at the door (no charge for USM music majors, USM Youth Ensembles members, and USM Music Summer Camp participants). For reservations, contact the Music Box Office at (207) 780-5555, or online at www.usm.maine.edu/music/boxoffice.

The program will include the first movement of Haydn's String Quartet Op. 3, No. 5 in F Major performed by Victoria Hurlburt and Sam Lyons, violins; Leigh Ashley Milne, viola; and Andrews Patterson on bass.

The second ensemble, Aaron Pettengill and Sam Schuth on violins, Roy MacNeil on viola, and Shannon Allen, cello, will perform two movements from Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden."

Both student chamber groups performing will receive critical feedback from members of the Larchmere Quartet in matters of technique and musical interpretation. Open to the public, master classes are a unique opportunity for music lovers to see and hear some of the exceptional study and discipline required to master an instrument.

About the Larchmere String Quartet

The Larchmere String Quartet is a dynamic young group founded in 2011 at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. They currently hold the position of Eykamp String Quartet in Residence at the University of Evansville in Evansville, IN, and are the principal string players of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.

From the beginning, the LSQ has been recognized nationally and internationally, attending the 2012 Banff Center Residency for Pre-Formed Ensembles in June on a full scholarship, followed by an August concert tour of New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. They began the position as the University of Evansville Eykamp Quartet in the fall of 2012, and have since performed extensively in southern Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois as ambassadors for the university and the philharmonic. The LSQ also works extensively with students at the University of Evansville as well as the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and other youth and school orchestras in the area.

Primary mentors include Mark Steinberg, James Boyd, Don Weilerstein, and Joel Krosnick, and between them, the members of the LSQ have degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Indiana University, and the University of North Texas. The members of the LSQ are devoted to performing the works of living composers as well as the 20th century masters, and have commissioned and performed many works by composers including David Dzubay, Don Freund, Eugene O’Brien, and Gabriela Ortiz. The group is named after the street in Cleveland where they spent much of their early rehearsal time together.

Members of the press, and those needing special accommodations to participate fully in this program,contact Lori Arsenault, (207) 780-5142, larsenault@usm.maine.edu.Hearing impaired: call USM's telex / TDD number (207) 780-5646